


Crazy

by aerye



Category: due South
Genre: Early Work, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 22:46:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11171661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aerye/pseuds/aerye
Summary: Kowalski and Vecchio are on stakeout. They're fine until they start talking about Fraser.





	Crazy

"Best pizza."  
  
"Ma's."  
  
Ray lowered the binoculars and shook his head. "Your ma don't make pizza."  
  
"Yeah, but I get struck by lightening if I don't mention her first whenever someone brings up food." Vecchio thought a minute. "Sal's. Over on West Cabrini. Sausage, olives, and anchovies. You?"  
  
"Tony still makes the best."  
  
"Real men do not put pineapple on their pizzas, Kowalski. It ain't decent."  
  
Ray snorted.  
  
"Phone's ringing," Vecchio said, and Ray cocked an ear over his shoulder. Vecchio listened a minute and then said, "Just his mother."  
  
"Christ, he's a mama's boy. She calls every goddamn day."  
  
"Something wrong with a guy who talks to his mother every day?" Vecchio asked, sudden edge in his voice, and Ray smiled without turning around.  
  
"Not a thing, Vecchio, not a thing," he said, and then dropped his voice. "If you're twelve."  
  
"Dickhead."  
  
"Asshole." He went back to the binoculars.  
  
"Cousin Louisa's pregnant," Vecchio reported after a minute. "Mama thinks it's that 'filthy, rotten communist from New York City'."  
  
Ray laughed. "Well, you know those communists—always knocking up the proletariat. Any coffee left?"  
  
"You're going to be up all night."  
  
"So now you're _my mother_?"  
  
" _Fine._ Whatever. There's some in the thermos. You want me to take the window?"  
  
"Sure." Ray got up and stretched. Vecchio looked down, scribbling a couple of things in the surveillance log, but he took the binoculars as Ray passed him on the way to the coffee. Ray poured himself a cup and then looked back over at Vecchio, who'd already settled in at the window, and picked up the earpiece. "Best case."  
  
Vecchio smiled. "Nailing Frank Zuko on sixteen charges of racketeering. You?"  
  
"Muldoon. How often does a guy get to capture a Russian submarine?"  
  
"Hey, I got shot on that case."  
  
"Yeah, but did you get thrown out of an airplane?"  
  
Vecchio snorted. "Point. Okay, craziest thing Fraser ever did."  
  
"That's not a 'best things'."  
  
"What are you—the 'best things' police? Okay, best crazy thing Fraser ever did."  
  
Kowalski considered. "Fraser doing the Zen master thing and playing dead that time we were trying to nail Van Zandt. And Christ, Frannie—" He started to laugh. "God, Vecchio, there was this German guy looked _just_ like Fraser, and Frannie—" He caught Vecchio's glare and straightened his face. "What about you?"  
  
Vecchio opened his mouth and then hesitated.  
  
"What?"  
  
He frowned and shook his head. "Nothing. Forget it."  
  
"C'mon, give, Vecchio," Ray pressed him. "It was your thing—you gotta play. What'd Fraser do that was so off the charts weird you don’t wanna say it?"   
  
A funny look crossed Vecchio's face. He glanced at Kowalski and then looked back out the window, clearing his throat. "Well," he shrugged, "there was that time he locked me and him in a bank time vault and then set off the sprinklers. That was fun for kids of all ages."  
  
Something wasn't— Ray looked at him suspiciously. "That wasn't what you were gonna say, Vecchio."  
  
"Wasn't it?" Vecchio made a show of refocusing the binoculars. "Hey, you think this guy is ever gonna make his move, Kowalski? 'Cause I think we're gonna get old here and retire before he ever—"  
  
"Vecchio—"  
  
"What? Jesus, okay—how about the time he insisted we go after a hijacker when he was blind and lame and kept calling me 'Steve'." Vecchio shrugged again. "Seriously, Kowalski—I got a million of these stories. I could go on all night. Can't expect me to pick just one."  
  
Ray set down the earpiece—Mrs. Allen was still ranting about the communist—and came up behind Vecchio. "You think it's any different for me? And anyway, that wasn't what you were gonna say either." He put a hand on Vecchio's arm and felt him stiffen. What the fuck?  
  
"Fine, what about the time—"  
  
Ray pulled on Vecchio's arm, twisting him around and forcing him to lower the binoculars. "That wasn't it either."  
  
"How do you know—you didn't even let me finish!" Vecchio objected, but he was having trouble meeting Ray's eyes.  
  
"I _know_. What the fuck is this, Vecchio? What did he do? What was the craziest thing Fraser ever did to you?"  
  
"That wasn't the question," Vecchio muttered, pulling his arm away.  
  
"What?"   
  
Vecchio raised the binoculars to his eyes again. "The question wasn't what was the craziest thing Fraser ever did to _me_. The question was what was the craziest thing Fraser ever did, period."  
  
"Yeah, and?" He took the binoculars away. "Vecchio—"  
  
"Yeah, and—" Vecchio went sixteen shades of red. "Okay, Kowalski. You wanna know? You're so goddamn curious?" There was heat and anger in his eyes. "Okay, I'll tell you. The craziest thing Fraser ever did was letting you go. You got that? Fraser had you, he had _you_ , all to himself, up there in those Northwest Territories. And he let you go. _That_ is the craziest fucking thing Fraser ever did." Vecchio looked away. "You satisfied?"  
  
And it was Ray's turn to gape like a fish, a thousand thoughts going through his head and not one that he could grab onto and put into words. Except maybe—  
  
"Yeah." The word felt good in his mouth and he said it again. "Yeah."  
  
Vecchio looked at him warily. "Yeah what?"  
  
"Yeah," he said. "I'm satisfied." Ray grinned. "I'm totally fucking satisfied, Vecchio, you asshole," and he leaned over and kissed him, hard, so that Vecchio couldn't get it wrong. Because maybe Fraser was crazy but _he_ wasn't, not by a fucking long shot, and there was no way he was gonna make the same mistake.


End file.
